Could such a
reformation as was suggested in my last chapter be indeed effected, the
vigour of conversion would doubtless be redoubled, independently of any
condition of political prosperity in the ancient seats of Mohammedan
dominion. I do not, therefore, see in territorial losses a sign of
Islam's ruin as a moral and intellectual force in the world.
It is time, however, to consider the special part destined to be played
by England in the drama of the Mussulman future. England, if I
understand her history rightly, stands towards Islam in a position quite
apart from that of the rest of the European States. These I have
described as continuing a tradition of aggression inherited from the
Crusades, and from the bitter wars waged by the Latin and Greek Empires
against the growing power of the Ottoman Turks. In the latter England
took no part, her religious schism having already separated her from the
general interests of Catholic Europe, while she had withdrawn from the
former in the still honourable stage of the adventure, and consequently
remained with no humiliating memories to avenge. She came, therefore,
into her modern relations with Mohammedans unprejudiced against them,
and able to treat their religious and political opinions in a humane and
liberal spirit, seeking of them practical advantages of trade rather
than conquest.
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